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Topic: Can tomme moulds be used for hard cheese? (Read 1500 times)

I've had great success making soft cheeses and am now moving on to hard cheeses (much to the relief of my friends who are all very much done with soft cheeses for the rest of their lives), but I'm having a little difficulty finding some info. I was looking at buying a large tomme mould (4-5lb capacity), but the info about it states that I can't use more than 8-12lbs of press force on it. Is that true? I know that I need more than that for cheddars and parmesan. Or is the supplier being very, very conservative with their specs?

Which mold and which supplier? Cheddars, it's a bit tough, but possible. Parmigiano-reggiano traditionally is pressed with only 20 lbs or so of weight (only the follower). If you follow proper traditional parmigiano procedure, there's not much need in a ton of weight.

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Taking an extended leave (until 2015) from the forums to build out my farm and dairy. Please e-mail or PM if you need anything.

It's just a standard large tomme from cheesemaking.com. I don't have a press at the moment that I would trust to do a cheddar, but I was planning on doing a parm next weekend.

I just ordered that same mold a few days go , it should be here by Friday , , I plan on using it for many different cheeses , cheddar , Gouda , etc. , i will let you know how it works for me.

I have been using a home made mold until now , it was made from 6 inch ABS pipe , drilled with drain holes and home made follower made from high density foam , it worked pretty good until recently , the mold is getting rough , from a reaction with the cheese I guess , and it is getting harder every time to get the cheese to slide out.

The last one stuck so bad that it started to break up as I had to pus extremely hard to get it out , I ruined the cheese , so time for a real mold.

That one looks good to me and the price is right , I hardly ever press with more than 15 pounds or so anymore , I hope it will handle that , and I like that it is tapered and stackable.

I will be trying a gouda in mine very soon , will report back in this thread.

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No..........I'm not a professional CheeseMaker , but I play one on TV.

Yes. This is my go-to (read "only") mold for what I deem 'bigger wheels.' The limiting factor for me is a slight taper that stops the follower around half-way down. I normally need to use 2-1/2 gallons or more of milk to avoid halting pressing progress. Much more than 3-1/2 gallons and the curd usually overflows the mold on me. The most weight I've used on it was 24 lbs for a Gouda. I use free-weights for lack of a press. It handled that weight without a blip and I expect it could take well in excess of 50 without any sign of a blowout.

As mentioned above, aside from cheddared cheeses, you don't typically need to press with all that much weight. 8-12 lbs is my normal high range for most of the pressed cheeses that I make.

Using almost exclusively goats milk I manage to get by with just the tomme, Camembert, and cup & pyramid chèvre molds. My taleggio mold has come in handy for the occasional square cheese, but I could do without it if I had to.

I find this tomme mold to be very versatile. I think you'll be quite happy with it.

I've had great success making soft cheeses and am now moving on to hard cheeses (much to the relief of my friends who are all very much done with soft cheeses for the rest of their lives), but I'm having a little difficulty finding some info. I was looking at buying a large tomme mould (4-5lb capacity), but the info about it states that I can't use more than 8-12lbs of press force on it. Is that true? I know that I need more than that for cheddars and parmesan. Or is the supplier being very, very conservative with their specs?

"I wrapped the kettle with the seed warming mat and shrouded the kettle with a clean towel to retain the warmth. I applied a 25lb weight with 4 pulleys for a calculated pressure of 575lbs and 13.7psi. I find the pressing business is an inexact process. A close guesstimate. The highest calculated weight I have recorded is 356lbs, measured in the real world with a health scale using an applied weight of 350lbs. That's pretty close."

Well I just received and used that tomme mold for the first time , I made a four gallon Gouda with dill.

Four gallons is a perfect fit for this mold , it drains very well as there are holes in the bottom as well as the sides , it is very stable to stack weights on , I pressed with 5 kg and it turned out the nicest looking cheese I have done yet.

Looking back , I would advise anyone just getting into cheese making to buy one of these and not to fiddle around with home made molds , it is much more rewarding.

The smooth walls and the slight taper make it a breeze to release the cheese from the mold.

A well spent 25 dollars.!

« Last Edit: October 29, 2013, 01:49:19 PM by jwalker »

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No..........I'm not a professional CheeseMaker , but I play one on TV.

Another attractive characteristic of that mould is that you can craft a lot of different cheese styles with it. My personal experience has seen Esrom, Gouda, Tomme, Tilsit, Beaufort, and Goutaler. It's a good all-around mould.